THERE IS MORE THAN ONE LAST WORD

Tonight Lawrence O'Donnell, on his MSNBC show, invited the leaders of five separate groups of the Teapartiers. None claimed leadership roles.  Each said that the Teaparty does not  need leaders, that as a leaderless group they have done very well.  They believe their goals are consistent with one another. They all said they wished for smaller, less intrusive government, and less socialism yet none could readily name a socialist program they would cut.  They all agreed, finally, that subsidies were socialistic but did not readily consider health care and social security as such.  For this observer, it was difficult to muster respect and comfort that these people knew enough to lead the country in a productive direction.

These group leaders were a contrast to the people the media has focused on as representative of the Teaparty's chosen candidates for office.  This group did not sound fanatical, rather confused, naive, and somewhat like a small child who, without any real knowledge,  thinks they can simply solve a problem...no hint of sequelae to their actions.

The questions asked by the interviewers. is often as useless as asking, :"What would Jesus do?"  This was not at all what O'Donnell did   It was a show run by a real pro.  He kept his focus and disallowed their spewing rhetoric instead of direct answers to what he asked of them.  Following Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann,
Rachel Maddow, his show, The Last Word, is aptly named.  Welcome to our world which is ready to be brought some reality, truth, balance, and integrity.

US HEALTHCARE, A MISNOMER; US HEALTHCARE DOESN'T CARE

There was a time in our society when bosses cared about employees and work to keep the company making a profit that was reasonable.  That is no longer the case.  Profits today don't even go to the shareholders.  What is not creamed off the top by the CEO, COO, and other high positions sits and grows in the company's accounts.  Premium paying patients get the least for their expenditures.

Recently a Columbia University research as to why Americans have a shortened life span than many other countries makes a somewhat shocking report about our current healthcare in the US.  If only more Americans believed in Martin Luther King's words on the subject, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."

In an article about our system, it is asked whether we are the best or just the most expensive.  Our death rate proves we are not the best and the fees charged indicate we are the most expensive.  For more details on this thought, click here.   Despite so many efforts to change things, which includes the free clinics that Keith Olbermann has featured on MSNBC, these effort are like spooning out the ocean with a teaspoon...not that even a few teaspoons make the effort less than a great humanitarian gesture.  As did Dickens' Oliver, we should all hold up our bowls and demand "more!"  However, our country is being held hostage by the stupid moves, especially of the last administration, in allowing lowered or fewer standards and more foreign takeover of our economy, jobs, trade balances, and so much that cost jobs and started the destruction  of our way of life which now exists.

Will the American public bypass the lies on some media and come out of the mesmerized state they are in and begin to think for themselves?  I can only hope that the majority will not be pulled down by the greatest of the liars to believe that God (who is being misused by those willing to sell religious snake oil) is behind the homophobia, racial hatred, and greed in our country.  Wake up Americans before it is too late for us all!

ONE SIZE FITS ALL DOES NOT DEFINE PEOPLE

There are many things in life to distress me. Among the worst are the pessimists, the paranoid, the slippery-slopers, those who can only see black and white, blamers but not responsibility takers, and people who think if one apple is rotten, it follows that all apples are rotten. When the Legislators and Media hot shots keep talking about all the people at AIG caused the destruction of the behemoth company, so none of them should get a promised bonus (even those who had nothing to do with trading and for whom the bonus serves in lieu of adequate salary). It should then follow that all Representatives and Senators are immoral, crooks, liars, greedy self-serving unconscionable people and worse, because the House and Senate have at times had some of all the above.

Why then does the media stir the pot of mob rage and fail to try to find out that the one-size-fits-all judgment is inaccurate? Even those in Media whom I trust the most, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow have disappointed me because they have allowed themselves to be swept up by the angry, ill-informed mob. Should we then equate them, as Media people, and say they are ultra-conservatives like Fox News staff? Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are all entertainers who make comment on the news. Does anyone consider them all alike? I would hardly think an intelligent person could do this. Why then has the media been able to whip up a feeding frenzy that is endangering the careers, reputation, and safety of the many loyal employees within AIG, Bank of America, and some of the other places currently where guilty, as well as innocent, are being thrown under the bus?

The Media, as well as the Legislators have the power to search out the truth, analyze the total situation before presenting it to the people. Instead, they are revving up the populace for repeat acts like the massacre at Columbine, the Spanish Inquisition, or the French Revolution with its guillotines. The media ought to hire people who can work on curing the hopelessness that exists in so many who are eager to displace their anger onto innocents; too ready to believe if you work with bad executives you must also be evil. President Obama, in my opinion, did the right thing to go on the Tonight Show and reach 200,000 million people rather than the pitiful few he might reach being on the often-biased political shows, when they are attempting to be fair and balanced but end up giving credence to ridiculous, near-thought0-disordered zealots. The Chariot of Hope on which Obama rode into office is fast being eroded by the Media and others. People are too impatient. The time it will take to fix the mess we are in from the Bush Administration should be very clear to anyone whose eyes and mind are open.

Wikipedia: "Patience (pā-shəns) is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. It is also used to refer to the character trait of being steadfast."

What happened to the patience of the American people who were able to wait out the Cheney/Bush tenure to be able to vote for some people who might make a difference and begin to put into place a cure for our ailing country? Where are the voices of ideas and hope which are not to be found in Media circles?

WE TOO SOON FORGET OR MISS IT

Roaming through YouTube, I came across an interview that Crossfire did with Jon Stewart in 2004. Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson are the interviewers, Jon Stewart the interviewee. By his honesty and directness, Jon Stewart illustrated in only moments why the media is worthless today. It is shocking that a comedian shows himself the politically wiser and greater patriot while the interviewers stubbornly hear only their own voices without a perception of the reaction of their audience.. It is shocking that a comedian shows himself the wiser philosopher and patriot while the interviewers remain clueless and absurd. It is a must-view, even if you saw it and have forgotten it from 2004. He accused them of partisan hackeryand pleaded with them to stop hurting the country..

It took until January of 2005 for CNN to realize just what Jon Stewart had made apparent, that they had two ridiculous, self-serving people on view who were responsible for the speed with which viewers were jumping the CNN ship. MSNBC, who was then picking up more viewers made the mistake of hiring Tucker Carlson (whom they have also now kept more often on the bench, though he still creeps in on panels) and who finally proved himself as worthless to an audience interested in facts, not opinion. His show was canceled recently. Perhaps the powers looked at viewing numbers had noted that having Tucker Carlson on 2 hours of prime time was not productive. This viewer is trying to be patient and give David Gregory, his replacement a trial since I'm apprehensive he will also fall off his pedestal along with Matthews and Olbermann and Russert. I still have some hope for Dan Abrams.

MEDIA NEWS: IT'S JUST MORE ENTERTAINMENT

While I have frequently written that I think the media has been against Hillary, the other day I was reminded just how nasty they have become. There has been much talk about how her continuing to campaign is hurting the Democratic party. I was shocked to hear (on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann), that she should be given the 'hook'. To me that proved that they are equating something as serious as our choosing a U.S. President with Vaudeville. I was as shocked as any American interested in bettering this country and correcting bad elections could have been.

Infuriated, I went to the MSNBC site. There used to be email contacts available for the major entertainers (I choke trying to call them anything else) but there is no longer anywhere I could find on the site to do so . If there is a place on their site, they have made it too obscure for me to find it. So I wrote to CNN (who still allows email to their people) and asked if Wolf Blitzer will pass on a message to the clueless Chris Matthews and MSNBC staff that there is a difference between race and ethnicity. Why Tweety has been permitted to make this error continuously for months appalls me but I am not surprised that people don't seem to speak accurately or use proper English on TV any more. I am reminded of the blue collar comedians saying, "There is no cure for stupidity!"

The station's sexism shows as women spit out the news in the daytime but the men hold fort during the prime time hours. The women, for the most part read the news. The men make more prejudicial comments with great assertion, as though their opinions mean more.

With most of the news channels on my 'do not watch' list, I spend more time running around the world for news of America. What a different view the world has of us than we, ourselves, try to convince others.

THE POLITICAL HORSE RACE

Tonight the talking heads on TV have been reporting as though this is a game. My former idol, Keith Olbermann has toppled off his pedestal, in my eyes. I miss the straight talking man who wrote letters to President Bush and read them with a firm tone, sincerity, and the blunt truths. I have long since abandoned all hope that Chris "Tweety" Matthews is an unbiased, competent news reporter. It seems something has gone to his head and coming out of his mouth in a most undesirable way. I presume it is that Washington sense of power and entitlement that we heard in Cokie Roberts when Bill Clinton became President. The derision in her voice as she laughed that he thought he could come in to Washington and change things!! If only the audience were not a bunch of sheep who don't stand up to these talking heads and let them know that they really do not run, but rather ruin, the country (with their opinions given as fact), as though they know more about how to run the country because they have been in Washington longer.

Perhaps I should be more sympathetic to their plight, that they have to make sounds come out of their mouths all the while the camera is on them and running. However, I cannot feel sympathetic. Chris Matthews take his own opinion so seriously that he talks over his guests constantly. He asks the questions, answers them, all in a breath...often leaving his guests totally looking like a deer caught in headlights. They don't seem to know what to say or do.

However this day's elections result, let us hope that the country will soon be better off than it has been in the past eight years while it has been being raped by the present administration. This may not have been noticed by many because the country's virtue had long been lost and very few screamed loud enough to be heard in the Fort Knox security of the Oval Office.

There is not much left but to wait, watch and see....but can we last until November? That leaves us with an 10 month gestation period before we can learn who the new parent of the country will be. We will be very exhausted, impoverished, and anxious about the future of the country that is slowly committing suicide, with little support or hope for recovery.

SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A CIGAR

While the pundits are trying to analyze every movement, sigh, tear, loss of patience, word, look, clothing, hairdos, and anything else they might spot, it might serve them well to remember that even Freud, famous for analyzing all sorts of things and drawing sexual conclusions, said (perhaps with reference to his own penchant for smoking cigars), "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." It means that sometimes you don't have to search deeply for hidden or unconscious meanings, and you should just take things at face value.

However, face value doesn't sell ads on TV. Since adversarial politics make it more interesting for the endless hours TV journalist/entertainers must probe and comment on what they are dissecting about some insignificant comment, or any other benign sign, they must manufacturer something to debate amongst themselves since the politicians failed their task of playing their 'adversarial' positions by the rules of current journalism. For some reason the producers think it makes for better show to pair opposing views. Hannity and Coombes were supposed to represent this, for a fair and balanced Fox News. It failed because they paired a tiger with a mouse, hardly fair and balanced.

It would seem that MSNBC has a somewhat different view of things. They let their powerhouses work alone. Not only does Keith Olbermann carry his own show but actually analyzes what is going in in the country. Something that he is doing must be reaching a lot of people favorably because his open letters to Bush are a real hit on YouTube. He seems to be the only one with views which he dares to express while others pander to their own Gods and biases.

LEARNING FULL STORIES IS DIFFICULT

The media has become more than ridiculous. The real journalists are gone, only to show up for brief moments, almost as afterthoughts as Tom Brokaw came on after the New Hampshire primaries. There are few entertainer/journalists left whom I can watch and respect. Keith Olbermann is one of the few to speak up to the administration as well as to entertainer/journalists. Do people forget that almost everything, including committed crimes, is frequently on videotape.

YouTube is one of the best things to happen to dampen people's penchant for rewriting history. Fox News, changing a transcript for history is laughable. If anyone doubts that Big Brother of 1984 is really here, stop doubting. It is laughable that it is claimed that evidence was lost because the FBI didn't pay its bills, or failed to pay them on time while breaking the law by taping private conversations.

Mistakes can happen. After all, all humans are fallible, even those who think they have a direct pipeline to God. It would be more comforting to believe that much of the media is making simple mistakes, but intelligent people, given all the evidence otherwise, would be making an error of their own to believe that. It is very interesting that Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard Editor, knew so definitely that Senator Clinton was faking tears in New Hampshire. What does that say about his own readiness to do whatever, say whatever, it takes to prove his point.

Too many people I know think their own lives of denial are more important than informing themselves as fully as our media and news sources permits. I suggest that, even as adults, we still have lots of daily homework to do.